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At first, there were the one hundred views of Japan… After we explored these iconic landscapes in a single year and described them in a book in France, we are still sharing travel inspirations focused on Japan. Welcome aboard!

[Heisei#32] Matsushima bay and its scattering of 260 tiny islands

Matsushima bay is famous among Japanese for being one of the Three Views of Japan (Nihonsankei, 日本三景) along with Miyajima’s red torii (Hiroshima) and Amanohashidate’s sandbar (Kyoto). Yet very few foreign visitors know about Matsushima and its incredible view. In the 17th century, worldwide known Japanese poet Bashô remained almost speechless when discovering it. He wrote then: “Matsushima ! Ô Matsushima ! Matsushima ! (The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Oku no Hosomichi). The classical view is also one of the Heisei 100 landscapes.

Cruising around Matsushima Bay is about 1500 yens, depending on the boat.

One of the fourth classical view of Matsushima, the North one from Tomiyama.

The West view from Ogitani.

The South view from Tamonzan.

From the path leading to Otakamori, the Eastern view point.

Nothing’s better than a map to understand Matsushima’s geography.

How to get there?

Matsushima is about 45 minutes from Miyagi capital city Sendai. From Tokyo, one thus needs to hop on a Shinkansen reaching the big city (either an Akita or a Tohoku one) and then use the JR Tohoku line to Matsushima. About 3 hours and 11000 yens. By car, the journey from Tokyo is about 4,5 hours.

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The book

Since the fall of 2018, our adventure around the hundred views had became a book in France. Les cent vues du Japon contains a hundred new text, travel advices and photos to learn more about these iconic sights.

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